GOATMILK: An intellectual playground edited by Wajahat Ali

By Rachel Morarjee

FINANCIAL TIMES

Published: September 26 2008 18:57 | Last updated: September 26 2008 18:57

In a deeply undignified start to my interview with one of the world’s most famous spiritual leaders, I am pressing my face against the glass of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, gesticulating wildly as I try to catch the eye of the dark-suited security man. It seems to me he is, perhaps reasonably, deliberately ignoring the madwoman outside. Read the rest of this entry »

MANNY SILVA, ILLUSTRATOR

• Story Highlights
• Chris Rock tells Larry King that McCain is on the verge of getting knocked out
• “I hope Obama wins just because … the country needs it”
• Rock says he can’t support a guy like McCain with “12 houses”
• Says vote for the guy with one house, cause he’s scared of losing it

(CNN) – Republican presidential candidate John McCain is just holding on like a boxer before he gets knocked out, comedian Chris Rock says.

Rock, an avid supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, spoke with CNN’s Larry King on Thursday. He said Obama is more grounded with your average American — not somebody like McCain with “12 houses.” Read the rest of this entry »

September 26, 2008

By Kathleen Parker

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion. Read the rest of this entry »